Here's to those who have jet fueled my motivations, those poor experiences and of course those who are a wealth of motivation and inspiration. Family. Friends. Job. Music. Life. My current lifestyle includes making things once wrong, right. It's about seeking Justice for myself. To answer the question, "How do you keep pedaling?" This is how. Some call it demons, others call it Justice. It's the fire. It's looking down at your legs and seeing a 2 cylinder engine half a day into a race. It's kind of funny, I have to regulate the amount of Justice I tap into. For countless training rides and races I've overdone it at times. At the Gunnison Growler, PCP2P, and Vapor Trail 125, that wasn't windburn in my eyes in mid race, nor the tears of pain, but of joy, of Justice. Although, it cannot be welcomed for a lengthy stay, but kept at bay, since being choked up is literally suffocating. I'm hoping that for the next race at the 25 Hours in Frog Hollow, I'll be able to muster the strength to produce special numbers. Whether or not I hit those numbers is not what takes the cake, but that I visit a very dark place and hit my "ceiling of fitness" to see just how deep I can go and I know that Justice will be the ghost the drives me.
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To transition to a lighter subject, below are pics of the recent Moab & Fruita trip with Brett Ebben that gave me more confidence than I imagined it would. Love that! The trip started with Amasa Back, one of my favorite areas in the universe! It was here where I first realized that I needed a much beefier bike since I managed to turn a trued rear rim into a frowning rim which swayed from seatstay to seatstay for the last few miles. Gladly, I was prepared and brought another rear wheel. It was then to the Sovereign Trail that same day which equated to more cheesy grins on cloud 9. The following day, Fred Wilkinson, a badass rider back in his hay day, joined us at City Market to ride up and around Slickrock. We were up for a big day of working for every mile at Slickrock and Porcupine Rim so I was stacked with 2500 calories, 7 water bottles, and body armor. Slickrock was a mountain biking playland and a physical test. I was able to minimize my dabs on the Navajo Slickrock to two during the entire ride, which I'm still stoked about. I plan on returning in a few weeks to make it a clean run! Brett and I then parted with Fred and climbed to begin my first try at Porcupine Rim. It was a long time coming and one of the best trails I've ever been on. I took it in that I've finally arrived at the trailhead after years of wanting to be right there. It was like climbing Navajo Slickrock stairs for miles and was right up my alley. I guess I'd call it cross country all mountain riding which is my favorite style of terra.
The next day we drove to Fruita for the Kokopelli Trail System for more spectacular riding over very different terrain that was still very challenging. I continued to think about how fortunate I was to be able to spend time on the bike and be fit enough to properly tackle a weekend like this. This weekend was a dream and a great time spent with Brett. The night was also a great time to take it all in by falling asleep to the stars. No tent, no bugs, just the peace and chill of the night and the ageless beauty of the stars.
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| Complete annihilation at Paradox Pizza owned and operated by Fred Wilkinson |
Cheers,
Tim
